WHO: Cai Vane, Theodora Travers. WHAT: Cai's just seen Thea's article and needs to have a word. WHEN: Jan 9, Morning (BACKDATED AF). WHERE: Cai and Thea's, Tinworth. WARNINGS: None.
Cai had barely seen Thea since she’d moved in to the spare room of his apartment. There were ‘hi’s and ‘how are you’s as they crossed paths on the way out the door or to the shower, but their schedules were different enough that they hadn’t spent any significant time together. This morning, however, Cai was perched at the kitchen bench, waiting for her. Last night’s Daily Prophet was spread out in front of him, mug of tea warming his hands as he read her article over again. He wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt; it wasn’t easy working for the Prophet in the current political climate and he knew Gwen had been forced to write things that she would rather not have. But this involved private wards that her editor would never have known if she hadn’t reported on them. It was entirely unnecessary.
“Tea?” he greeted her when she emerged from her room, lifting his own cup up to indicate there was still freshly boiled water.
Still reeling from the beers she’d shared with a like-minded friend from the Prophet; Thea’s Head was still somewhat muddy. “Mm?” She looked up and gathered that she was being offered something. Hopefully coffee. “Sure, that would be nice, thank you.”
And then she saw her article spread out in front of him.
Oh right. Cai was in the DMLE too.
“Catching up on the news?” She asked cautiously.
He’d meant for her to make her own tea, but he didn’t correct her, standing up to fetch a mug. “Yeah. You had a lot to say, apparently. Milk, sugar?”
“I did. Milk, no sugar.” She sat down on the other kitchen bench, eyes fixing on the printed words she’d written, trying to repress the swell of pride in her chest. “It was all the truth.”
“I know. I’ve read the wards.” He added the milk and passed her the tea, sitting back down in front of the paper and sipping from his own mug. “But it doesn’t reflect the reality of our office, and they’re private DMLE wards. It wasn’t for the public to see.”
“If the wards was just the DMLE, I wouldn’t have reported on it. It’s more than that, they included a member of the public — a victim, actually — who was attempting to report a crime,” Thea asserted, wrapping her fingers around the mug of tea, a little disappointed that it wasn’t coffee. “Thank you,” she added.
“I’m not saying my colleagues handled it correctly, or shouldn’t have been more careful about what they said in front of Angelus, but do you really think this is what the paper needs to be reporting? Or that the dissolution of the Aurors office has been good for the greater community in any way?”
Thea sighed. There wasn't really a way to spin herself out of this, was there? "My job is expose the truth, Cai. You admitted just then that the situation was badly handled, and if this is how they've treated one victim, there are absolutely more stories like this. And, yeah, I do think that if this is how a group of Former Aurors are behaving, then their office shouldn't continue to have public funding."
“That wasn’t the truth, Thea,” Cai tried to keep his tone even, gripping his mug tighter. “The truth would have included how Yaxley was asking people to come in when they had other commitments, like their son, when there were other people who were available to do the job. Or threatening to wipe people’s annual leave balances if they disagreed with him in any way. This,” he thrust a finger into the paper, “Isn’t a truthful, unbiased exposé. It’s a one-sided attack on a department trying to do a now impossible job.”
"You're in the DMLE. Emergencies occur, and it isn't up to you or anyone else in the Department to make calls on your superior's judgment about who should and shouldn't be responding to a particular case." Thea sipped from her tea, mostly to buy herself time for how she could get herself out of this conversation. "But it seems that you've made up your mind that I was wrong, and you and your colleagues are right. This seems like a fruitless confrontation."
“Because this wasn’t a life or death situation and my superior was abusing his power!” Cai replied, setting his cup down a little harder than intended, tea splashing over the side. “But if you’ve made up your mind that you were right and we were wrong then I agree, this conversation isn’t getting us anywhere.”
Thea raised her eyebrows, indicating that she clearly thought he was overreacting, but kept her tone calm and even when she spoke. "Then we should just agree to disagree. We don't have to agree to be flatmates, do we?"
“No, we don’t,” Cai agreed. “But can we at least agree that any conversations we have, or that you overhear because we live together are off the record?”
"Come on, Cai, I wouldn't do that." Besides, Thea knew that if she used anything she overheard in his house, she'd a) have to move and b) risk him blowing up the news about her hooking up with Layla. Which she was absolutely not ready for.
Even though she didn't think Cai was the kind of person who would, one could never be too sure with the morally superior types. They had a flair for the dramatic at the most inopportune moments.
Cai raised his eyebrows, skeptical that he could trust that she wouldn’t do that considering what she’d done with the DMLE ward. “It’s always good to be clear about what you can and can’t use. So, we’re in agreeance?”
She held out her hand and smiled. "Pinky promise."
Cai gave the slightest eye roll but linked his pinky with hers anyway. “The most sacred of agreements. Can’t go back on it now.”